OCP K3 ink set: the secret/solution is in the ...magenta !!!

[iladi]

one thing i nottice: printing on 120g matte coated i get paper curl very bad on heavy loads of ink. with dyes i didn't notice such a thing. i also think my ink limits are ok (88% for individual and 230 for total).

 

[iladi]

I have major problems since i refill with ocp inks. I am loosink yellow and matte black while i'm printing. A normal cleaning will do but i have to do this after each print. Anybody else have this problem with ocp inks?

 

[pharmacist]

Hi Iladi,

I do not use matte black, but I have discovered that yellow seems to be a bit tricky in ink flow (some nozzles dropping after a large printing job). I discovered that adding 1 ml ammonia per 100 ml of ink solved the problem without impairing the printing quality. All other colours are fine. Actually print quality is very good indeed, especially when I use the Octopus T0543 magenta ink. Very good ABW print (a bit warm, but still very neutral) and incredibly good glossiness despite some metamerism. I will do a test on matte paper and see how it behaves.

Edit: tested on Ilford Smooth heavyweight 200 gsm paper and not curling or whatsoever......I think you should buy better paper. It prints very good and no problem here at all.

 

[iladi]

I'm using ocp ink in combination with octopus magenta. Printer is Epson 9700 pro. Maybe the nozzles are to thin for ocp inks. Prints are ok, good colors, but gamut is way smaler than inktek dyes. Almost half. For 180g matte coated paper i have about 550000 cubic units for pigment, and nearly double for dyes. Since almost all my prints are tehnical drawings and short therm POS displays, I think I'll go back to dyes.

 

[pharmacist]

Iladi,

It is well known that pigment inks (even original Epson K3) have a significantly lower gamut compared to dye inks. The reason for using pigment is the water resistance and light fastness. If you want popping and vivid output, go for dyes.

 

[jtoolman]

WOW! Of course pigment inks ( probably all makes and brands ) are lower in gamut than Dye inks!
OMG what a revelation!

 

[iladi]

No need to be sarcastic. I was expecting this, but with such a big margin, no. On 180 matte coated paper (no matte photo) i have 500000 vs 900000 cubic units. That's a BIG difference. And the biggest surprise is that my roland ecosolvent printer is better on colors than waterbased epson. With 3rd party taiwan inks.

Is there any method of protecting dyes from fading? Any spray or other method?

 

[pharmacist]

Iladi: 500000 cubic units is pretty good for pigment inks on matte coated paper, so nothing to be worried about.

 

[iladi]

Yes, i know. Test prints are ok, prety much like an offset press. A good one. It is not the gamut that draws me back. It is the fact that yellow (less), black and magenta (more) are droping a lot of nozzles while printing. 1 square meter of print and i loose 25-30% of nozzles. After every print i have to do a clean. To much effort, to much waste. Only one distributor, one week for delivery. 40% more expensive than previous ink. Less materials and more expensive. I print alot. I have an epson and a mutoh. This last 3 days i was printing more than 500 meters. With only one printer was a nightmare. Unfortunately, ocp ink was a bad bussiness for me.

 

[pharmacist]

I too have some problems with yellow, but what type of magenta is dropping alot of nozzles: OCP or Octopus T0543 ?

But wait a minute: the Epson Pro 9700 is using a 5 channel system: MB, PK, C, VM and Y so this is NOT a K3 printer....You should use other inks, especially optimized for your printer, not the OCP K3 ink set.